It is usual in the prior art to provide sliding panels, such as screen or glass doors and the like, with rollers supported in channels at the top and bottom edges of the door. The rollers, in turn, ride on appropriate tracks on the top and bottom of the door opening. It is also usual in the prior art for the rollers to be spring biased so as to permit the door to be positioned in the tracks by a simple manipulation, and to permit the doors to be easily removed from the tracks, as may be required.
It is important that the rollers are adjustable so that they can freely ride in the tracks and thus avoid binding of the panel in the tracks as the panel slides from one position to another, and to accommodate slight variations in the size of the panel opening and/or out-of-square conditions, imperfections, etc. which may exist in said opening.
The following prior art relates generally to the invention disclosed herein: U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,028 (U.S. Class 16/91) which issued to Schoenbrod on Mar. 27, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,593 (U.S. Class 16/105) which issued to Helmick on Dec. 27, 1977; U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,622 (U.S. Class 49/421) which issued to Stewart on Sept. 12, 1978; U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,493 (U.S. Class 49/425) which issued to Baumgarten on Feb. 13, 1990; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,313 (U.S. Class 49/420) which issued to Helmick on Oct. 19, 1971.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,028 relates to a sliding panel roller assembly wherein a single roller assembly is provided for the upper and lower rollers of a sliding panel with the upper rollers being yieldably maintained on an upper track while a threaded bolt extends through a bore in the panel frame and supports the weights of the panels directly on the lower rollers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,593 relates to a sliding door roller assembly wherein the roller assembly is adjusted from the sides of the door. This is accomplished through the accessibility of limit stop clamp screws through side openings in the door.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,622 relates to a roller assembly for a sliding screen door and the like which includes a housing supported as a friction fit in an opening in the edge of the door and which also includes a roller supported in the housing. The roller is spring biased by a flat spring member which constitutes a resilient support for the roller and which is hooked into the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,493 relates to a replaceable sliding door roller assembly wherein the roller assembly includes a roller mounted in a roller housing and is carried in a cantilevered manner at one end of a leaf spring. The opposite end of the leaf spring is permanently bent to form a hook which is engageable with a mounting tab on an upper or lower door edge through a mounting insertion gap in the door edge such that the leaf spring extends across a bearing tab. The leaf spring is arranged so that the roller moves into and out of a roller receiving pocket to accommodate imperfections and obstructions in a stationary track on the door frame on which the roller travels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,313 relates to a supporting roller assembly for a sliding panel and which roller assembly includes a spring bias rocker arm having a rounded seating edge seated against the panel edge surface. A track engaging roller on the arm is adjacent one end of the seating edge and attachment means pivotally secured to the arm adjacent the other end of the seating edge secure the arm to the panel for adjusting the arm to shift the point of contact of its seating edge with the panel edge surface in a direction along the seating edge to provide adjustment of the roller toward and away from the panel edge surface.
It will be discerned from the description of the present invention which follows that the invention differs structurally from the prior art as recited above and accomplishes the required adjustability and/or installation and replacement of a sliding panel in a simple and less complex fashion than that taught or suggested by the prior art.